Minutes, IBIS Quality Task Group

09 June 2020

11:00-12:00 EST (08:00-09:00 PST)

ROLL CALL

Intel Corp.                         Michael Mirmak
Mentor, a Siemens Business          Arpad Muranyi
Micron Technology                 * Randy Wolff
Signal Integrity Software:        * Mike LaBonte
SPISim                              Wei-hsing Huang
Teraspeed Labs:                   * Bob Ross
Zuken USA:                        * Lance Wang

Everyone in attendance marked by *

NOTE: "AR" = Action Required.

-----------------------MINUTES ---------------------------
Mike LaBonte conducted the meeting.

Call for IBIS related patent disclosures:

- None

Call for opens:

- Mike LaBonte said there had been an Open Forum request from Radek Biernacki to
  consider embedding the new license agreement into our executables.
- It was noted that no agenda had been sent for the meeting.

Review of previous meeting minutes:
Minutes from the June 2 meeting were reviewed. Bob Ross moved to approve.
Randy Wolff seconded. Without objection the minutes were approved.


ARs:
- Mike LaBonte to seek Intel and SAE ITC review of proposed binary code license
  - Sent to both. SAE ITC replied that it is in progress.
- Bob Ross to review the BIRD181.2 draft
  - Not done yet.


IBISCHK7 and TSCHK2 binary copyright:
Mike LaBonte said Radek Biernacki had proposed in Open Forum that the license text
could be embedded in the executables.  He noted that such an embedded license would
live "forever", whereas we might need to change the license text later.  Bob Ross said
some companies like Intel might redistribute our executables without the agreement.
Mike said Intel probably had purchased source code because it did come with a license.

Bob suggested we could do one of:
- Nothing
- Upload the license text to the parser web pages
- Upload and also require an online click agreement
- Have the parsers print the license text

Mike felt that having a database of who accepted online would be too involved.  Bob and
Randy Wolff agreed that would not be necessary, a checkbox to enable download would
suffice.  Lance Wang suggested having the executable print the license and require
acceptance.

Randy said we could simply have it print the license.  Mike suggested ibischk could
print the license once, but he feared that saving the acceptance state to prevent future
printing might not be reliable.  He said a lawyer had told him that simply shipping
the license text file with the software was a standard practice, and sufficient, there
being a general understanding that file names with README, COPYRIGHT, or INSTALLATION
usually constituted notice that they should be read.

Bob noted that software on CD-ROMs often came with licenses.  Mike said embedding the text
would need developer work. He felt that our prospects for updating tschk2 were not good.

Bob said an existing README shipped with the ibischk7 source code might have some
agreement language.  Mike reviewed that source distribution, finding readme files but
no agreement text.

Bob suggested using a license file and a program option to print it.  Randy suggested
having zip files for each executable bundling the license text.  A lawyer had said
that would be enough, and it should be good enough for us.  Bob agreed with bundling
into zip archives.  Mike said the provision that redistribution included the license
file was important.  Randy and Bob agreed with still having the license on the web pages.


New parser bugs:
Bob Ross reported there were no new bugs.


IBISCHK 7.0.2 development:
Bob Ross said a vote was in play to approve the $880 expense for parser development.
SAE ITC had been given a heads up.  Bob said we would need a few days after receipt of
the code to do our acceptance checks.  Mike LaBonte asked if Bob usually ran the included
regression tests.  Bob said he did not.  He noted that the software often arrives with
the test results having been run, and not all of them had passed.  Mike said he might
try to run the tests next time.  Bob described some test methods he uses.


Tabled topics (no discussion without motion):
  - IBIS-ISS parser


Randy Wolff moved to adjourn. Bob Ross seconded. Without objection the meeting ended.

Meeting ended: 12:00 ET

Next meeting June 16, 2020

